A Secret World
by ebon-drake
Summary: In the hopes of getting to know the commander a little better, Allura shares with him a part of her past she had never revealed to anyone else before. My response to the KAEX "Broken" challenge and a loose sequel to my fic, "Mother's Day." Set in the DoTU timeline with influences from both Go-Lion and DDP. Contains adult themes. Rated T. COMPLETE. Updated a bit as of 6/26/14.


**Disclaimer: **Voltron and its characters, settings, and story line are copyrighted by World Event Productions, Ltd. and Toei Animation Company. DDP comic concepts and ideas are copyrighted by Devil's Due Publishing. Cover image is a screenshot from Purrsia's website, "Voltron Central." References to areas of the Denubian Galaxy (i.e. Azure Quadrant, Onyx Star System, etc.) are from the map developed by Shannon Muir and sanctioned by WEP. All other names, places, characters, and plot bunnies are my own unless otherwise noted. I am in no way affiliated with the aforementioned companies. No monetary profit is being made from this work, and no copyright infringement is intended. Please do not do not re-post or reuse this work without obtaining my written permission first. Thank you.

**Last Revision Date: **8/16/14

**Author's Note: **This fic is my response to the KAEX Broken challenge. I decided to make it a sort-of sequel to my fic, "Mother's Day", and I guess both stories could fit inside my "Darkest Before the Dawn" arc. It is set in the first half or so of the DoTU time line. I tried to do a bit of research for this fic, but there may still be a couple of inaccuracies, and so I apologize to any hardcore spelunking enthusiasts in advance. All the same, I still hope that you guys enjoy reading this.

**A Secret World, Ch. 1**

Allura's schedule was normally jam-packed with lessons, meetings, and training sessions of various types, but for her mental, as well as physical, well-being, she had also made sure to sprinkle several, very brief, breaks throughout her day so that she could momentarily unwind and recharge herself. On one day in particular, she found herself sipping hot tea in one of the many common areas of the palace on one of her breaks, and she was discreetly studying Keith's profile, who sat across the room from her in an upholstered seat, drinking coffee as he read a document of some type on his datapad. His brow was furrowed, as if concentrating on a serious matter.

The captain had always been something of an enigma to her. Besides Sven, he was probably the most mysterious of the men of the Voltron Force. She still remembered the day that they had wandered into the grand hall of the old ruins of the Castle of Lions and bent down before her, and she recalled how breathless she had felt when she beheld their handsomeness and heroicness, him in particular when he had pressed his lips to her hand in a warm, but chaste, kiss. Over the subsequent weeks, she had gotten to know most of them: Lance with his daring, sardonic wit, and ability to perceive and confront the truth, no matter how painful, Hunk with his strength, enthusiasm for life, and desire to defend those who could not defend themselves, particularly children, and Pidge with his dexterity, razor sharp intellect, and determination to innovate and improve everything for the betterment of all. Sven was polite and an excellent shot, but ultimately reserved, and so she had not been able to get as good of a read on him as she had the others, but she liked him, and shared in the guys' grief when he had been injured to the point of near-death and shipped offworld to receive the medical treatment that he had so sorely needed.

Keith had the same aloofness as the silent Norseman, although it was not as severe now as it had been in the past. With the exception of his dark eyes, it was hard to see what he was feeling or thinking in his face, he barely confided in anyone other than maybe his brothers-in-arms, and other than during flight practice or an actual battle, she never heard him raise his voice above that of a conversational tone. It was not until he had gone down to check on her when she went down to the crypts in order to pay her respects to her mother that he had actually opened up to her somewhat, and for the first time, she had begun to see a glimmer of the person that was hidden beneath the toughened facade of the Marine officer from Earth. They had a surprising number of things in common, and she found herself further intrigued by him.

She noticed now that he was more receptive to others if they opened up to him first and decided that this would be the way to find out more about the man who flew Black Lion. The prospect of making herself so vulnerable, as well as being alone with him, filled her with trepidation, but also excitement, and as she emptied her mug of tea and set it down on the table next to the chair that she was sitting on, she smiled and immediately knew what it was that she would reveal to him, something that she had never shared with anyone else before.

* * *

"Princess, where are we going, anyways?" the raven-haired pilot asked, his tone wary, as he trudged along behind her through one of the tunnels that ran higgledy-piggledy through the earth underneath the castle.

Allura turned around and momentarily looked at him in exasperation. On his head was a yellow helmet with a headlamp, and she wore one, too, on top of her braided tresses. They both wore dark-colored oversuits and calf-length boots. On both of their backs were PVC bags filled with food, gear, and other necessities.

"It's a surprise," she smiled at him, showing her teeth, "Please be patient."

The light from the headlamps lit up both of their faces like halos.

"Princess, it's late at night, Coran and Nanny don't know where you are, and if you had had your way, no one would even know that we were gone," he countered, as she knew that he would, "I know that I don't need to tell you why this is a bad thing."

Her lips curled wryly at this mild chastisement. If she did not know any better, she would be prepared to swear that Keith was her advisor's long-lost son, for they both shared the same lack of enthusiasm for spontaneity, it seemed. She had wanted this to be a completely clandestine affair, but... he did have a point, as much as she hated to admit to that fact. They had reached a compromise by informing Lance, who would act if notified by them on one of their comm units or if enough time had passed and they had not yet returned.

"I know, I know. You're right, but please humor me, Keith," she implored him, widening her blue eyes to appear as winsome as possible, "We won't be gone long, and we'll be back before you even know it."

He averted his gaze from her for a moment and sighed in defeat. "Fine, Princess. Even though we're probably breaking a million rules... Let's do this."

She immediately brightened upon getting her way. "Thank you! You won't regret this, I promise."

His mouth tightened into a brief smile. "Sure thing, Princess."

She turned back around and continued leading him towards their destination. They followed the curves of the natural tunnel as it snaked ahead of them. Stalactites of varying sizes dripped from the ceiling, and stalactites rose up like the teeth of some great beast from the floor. A path had been hewn through them, which was what they were walking on now. As it had been in the crypts, the air here was cool and redolent with the smell of earth. After a time, they came to a fork in their path, and the one Allura chose on the right looked to be less used than the other. They traveled down it until it widened into a medium-sized chamber and then came to an apparent dead-end. Like the tunnels, this new area featured jutting edges, as well as stalagmites and stalactites. At the end of the chamber were the shattered remains of a large, ancient stalactite that had fallen from the high ceiling and came crashing down to the floor some time in the distant past.

Her eyes shone with excitement as she pointed towards it. "We're going to be going over there."

Keith dubiously surveyed the rubble. "It doesn't look very safe."

She made a dismissive gesture with one hand at his doubt. "So long as we're careful, we'll be fine. I found this place when I was seven and temporarily lost in the caves... I eventually found Nanny and Coran again -oh, my God, were they worried!- but I made sure to remember where this place was and came back to it again whenever I could. I know it well."

"Why, Princess? That sounded awfully dangerous, especially for you being so young," he commented.

Allura arched an eyebrow at him, his hyper-vigilance and apparent underestimation of her as a child mildly offending her. "Times were a little different then... and I learned to fend for myself early on." She then sighed and said, "This place became special to me. You'll see why soon enough."

He reddened somewhat in embarrassment at her reaction to his words, but said nothing else in response. They carefully picked their way across the large, jagged shards of rock until they reached the dead-end. There did not appear to be anything particularly special about the area, but upon closer inspection, there was an inconspicuous opening in the wall, large enough for a young child to go through relatively unhindered, but small enough that a full-grown adult would be forced to duck down and crawl through.

She paused to take off her bag and open it up, rummaging around inside until she pulled out a pair of light-colored, heavy-duty kneepads, and he did the same. They soon both had their pads strapped over the knees of their oversuits and their bags back on, and she ducked down before the entrance and began crawling inside, with him not too far behind her.

They crawled for a few minutes, and the princess' breath began to quicken with excitement as she saw the end of the tight passage coming into view; she could already see some of what had made this place so special to her all those years ago. She hoped that it would make the same impression on Keith as it had on her when she was a little girl. Suddenly, she remembered that she was in front of him, and that he had had a front-seat view of her butt for a good while. Even though it was well-covered by several layers of clothing, her cheeks nonetheless colored at this realization and made her hasten her movements until she completely exited the passage and was able to stand back up on her own. Her self-consciousness promptly disappeared and became replaced with a familiar sense of wonderment, however. Within a few seconds, the captain joined her, and as she had hoped, his mouth dropped open at the sight that was before them.

They were in an expansive cavern, and the walls were covered with fungi that glowed with a soft blue-green light that lent an otherworldly atmosphere to their surroundings. The sound of gently flowing water filled the air, indicating the presence of an underwater river nearby. On the ceiling were clusters of light from which delicate, luminous strands, too numerous to count, hung.

"It's... beautiful," Keith finally spoke.

She turned towards him, beaming. "Isn't it?"

He nodded, and for a minute, the two did not speak, instead merely staring in awe at this magical subterranean world that they had just entered.

Without thinking, Allura took his hand and led him out a short distance to a spot that was mostly flat and comfortable to sit down on. She shed her bag and then stretched her body out on the cool ground. At her urging, he did the same, and before he could stop her, she switched off his headlamp before turning off hers. The bioluminescent organisms seemed to suddenly glow with a greater intensity. The clusters of light shone like stars, forming a pattern reminiscent of the Milky Way that stretched all the way across the ceiling.

After a thoughtful silence, she finally spoke, the darkness and open space of the cavern making her voice seem louder than it really was. "I found this place by accident, but it became my special place, my secret world, that I could escape to, at least for a while, when things became too much."

For a few moments, Keith said nothing in reply, other than making a small sound of acknowledgement, and could only continue staring, enraptured by the swirling galaxies he fancied that he could see in those pinpricks of light.

"What are they?" he queried, pointing upwards to the ceiling.

She smiled and answered, "Believe it or not, insect larvae. The strands hanging down from them are used to catch other insects."

"It's beautiful," he repeated himself, "It looks just like the night sky."

Nodding her head in agreement, she replied, "That's what I liked so much about this place. There was so much death and terror and suspicion... this became my refuge away from all of that. We spent so long living underground, and although I understood the necessity of it all, I still hated the feeling of being so trapped. At the same time, I was terrified to go to the top and out into the open since that would have meant instant death, and I seemed to fear the wide, open sky just as much as I did this suffocating darkness. This place just seemed... a gift. A chance to escape the literal and figurative darkness, even if only for a little bit, and a reminder that there was still beauty in the world for those still willing to look for it."

After a pause, she then asked him, "Did you have any place like this that was special to you?"

The captain hesitated before responding, and like their last time alone together, he suddenly sounded much younger than his years. "Well... there was one place..."

She reached over to him and squeezed his hand encouragingly. "What was it?"

The darkness of the cavern was softened by the glow of the fungi and larvae, but it was still difficult to see without the harsh light of their headlamps; nonetheless, she could detect his blush in the tone of his voice. "I did not experience the horror that you and your people were forced to endure at the time, but after my parents passed on, I felt lost until I finally joined the Corps and met...," his voice broke, and then he said, "Before I joined, though, I still kept training at my dad's old dojo, which his brother, my uncle, took over. For a while each day, I could forget my pain, and it felt peaceful there. The place held a lot of good memories for me, and even though I knew my parents were gone, for a moment, it still kind of felt like they were there with me."

The princess sensed that he had wanted to say more, but underneath the relatively calm tone of his voice, there was an undercurrent of pain that still seemed raw, and so she refrained from pressing him further on the matter.

She squeezed his hand again and smiled. "I'm sure that they were; I get the same feeling sometimes whenever I go down to my family crypt, as morbid as that sounds. But your... dojo," she carefully sounded out the unfamiliar word, "Sounded like a really special place to you, and still does."

Keith returned her gesture, and she could almost see the smile on his face. "Yeah, it is."

"I think almost everyone has had a place like this where they can sometimes take refuge in their memories," Allura continued, "It might seem like hiding, but I prefer to think of it as remembering what is important to you, and ultimately what you are fighting for, for everyone."

"You know what, I think you're right," he replied.

They then turned their eyes back to the cavern ceiling and its celestial display.

The princess could not speak for the Black Lion pilot, but she felt ridiculously happy and content at the moment, and she could not explain with 100 percent certainty why she felt like she had so many butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. She was in a place that had been close to her heart since childhood, and his company was pleasant, but it was as if there was more to the situation than that. Even though they were both wearing gloves, she could feel the heat of his hand on hers as plainly as an open flame. All that she knew was that she never wanted this moment to end.

Just when she thought herself incapable of holding in anymore of this joy, he tightened his hand around hers and said, "Thank you for showing me this place, Princess. I'm glad that I came here, and that you were with me."

"I-It was no problem, really!" she spluttered suddenly, her heart palpitating, "I-I'm glad that you came, too."

She then clammed up before she could say anything else foolish. He didn't seem to notice her sudden discomfort, however, and they lapsed back into a silence that was both comfortable and tense as they enjoyed each other's company and their otherworldly surroundings.

After a while, Keith had the thought to check his comm unit and saw what time it was. "In a few hours its going to be dawn, Princess... we better start heading back."

"Very well, I guess you're right," she answered him, feeling suddenly deflated at the realization that their time alone together was coming to a rapid close, at least for the time being.

They turned their headlamps back on and blinked as their eyes readjusted to the brightness of the light that came flooding out. After getting up and stretching her tired muscles, Allura abruptly dug through her bag and brought out her datapad.

"Do you mind... if I take a picture of the both of us here?" she asked him sheepishly, "It's fine if the answer is no, I just... really had fun tonight with you, and I want to remember it."

A surprised look filled his dark eyes, and then an expression that seemed to be one of pleasure appeared on his face. "Sure, Princess. Take one for me, too."

Holding her breath, she sidled up next to him and said, "Okay, one serious one, and then a goofy one. Serious one first, okay?"

"Sure thing, Princess," he agreed.

She brought her datapad forward and aimed its camera at them. "Okay, on three. One, two... three!"

There was a click, and then she brought her device close to her for a moment, swiping her fingers over its screen.

She then thrust the datapad out before them both again and said, "Okay, now the goofy one! On three. One, two... three!"

There was another click, and as she had done with the first picture, she examined the results of the second one and, once satisfied, returned her datapad back to her bag, which she then hoisted back onto her body.

"Thanks, Keith!" she beamed at him.

"Not a problem, Princess. Can you send them to me, too?"

She smiled at him. "Sure!"

She then shyly added, "You look a lot different when you're having fun. You should do stuff like this more often."

Taken aback by her words, the captain reddened and hastily threw his bag onto his back. "Uh... Thank you. I will... keep that in mind, Princess."

For a moment, Allura almost giggled out loud at his obvious struggle to rearrange his face into its usual stoic expression, but she refrained from doing so in order to allow him to keep his dignity.

As they proceeded to trek their way back to the small entrance that they had crawled through, she turned her head back toward him and put a finger to her lips, conspiratorially whispering to him, "Remember, what Coran and Nanny don't know won't hurt them."

His mouth curved into small smile, which then disappeared. "If you won't tell, neither will I."

* * *

The next night, the Black Lion pilot hit his rack, exhausted beyond belief. He had gotten little sleep the night before due to his caving excursion with the princess, but it had been an incredible experience, and well worth the effort that it had taken them to get there. It had been ethereally beautiful... the cavern... Allura...

The thought of her made his pulse quicken, and then a frisson of guilt surged through him and brought that train of thought to an immediate, grinding halt. It was just as well... She was a princess, both his better and subordinate, and as such, doubly untouchable to him, and that was entertaining the thought that she was even interested in him in that way, which she probably wasn't.

Not only was she beautiful, but she was also a genuinely nice person, a surprising trait to find in a person who had grown up in such a war-torn world. She was like a blooming flower with blades for petals. She must have sensed a repressed need of his and that was why she had invited him to go out with her to the cavern; that, and she probably saw the sense in bringing along an escort. It would have been beyond foolish of her to go out there alone. Not that she couldn't handle herself, but she was the last of her dynastic line, a person critical to the formation of Voltron, and a symbol of hope for her people. If something were to happen to her, it would have a devastating effect on Arus and a huge blow to the morale of almost everyone in the Denubian Galaxy. Keith clenched his fingers together at the thought. For a moment, he could almost see the avaricious gleam in the Prince Imperial of Doom's felinoid eyes, and this made him dig his nails into his palm. No matter what, he could never allow him to get his hands on her again.

After a few moments, he relaxed his hands from the fists that they had been curled up into. His desire for her would forever remain a mere wish within a dream for him, but he would do whatever was in his power to protect her while he remained on Arus, no matter what. He would do for her what he had not been able to do for the only other one who had been able to find a way past the vast walls that he had built around his heart.

..._Beverly_...

Guilt stabbed through him again with a feeling akin to physical pain. With a conscious effort, he compartmentalized that thought and placed it in a far part of his mind until the pain faded to a dull, familiar ache in his chest. Sighing, he turned over onto his stomach and fished out his datapad from the drawer of his nightstand. Waking the device from its sleep mode, he opened up his image gallery and immediately saw the first of the pictures that the princess had taken last night and sent him. He tapped on it, and a three-dimensional version of it leapt out at him. Both of their faces were lightly smudged with dirt underneath their yellow helmets, and her blue eyes fairly sparkled with happiness. His expression was considerably more subdued than hers, but he found himself smiling now at the memory of their trip. He swiped his fingers across the screen and tapped again, and his smile widened at the sight of Allura sticking her pink tongue out sideways from her mouth and him awkwardly crossing his dark eyes. Even in jest, he looked slightly ill at ease, but then again, it had been a long, long time since he had been as... he almost wanted to say "as untouched" or "as carefree" as her, but he knew that those would be the wrong words to use for describing Allura. Maybe that was what set her apart from so many. She was certainly hardened, and yet she had not allowed that fact to tarnish her inner light. She really was a rarity.

Without thinking, Keith swiped and tapped again, and the playful image of him and the princess became replaced by yet another one. He was younger in this one, without as many hard lines in his face, and in his arms was a different woman. She had light red hair pulled back into a braid that trailed down her front and blue eyes crinkled up with laughter. Both of them were bundled up against the snow that was falling gently around them, and behind them was the familiar metropolitan background of New York City. His heart stopped for what seemed an eternity, and then he abruptly closed out of the gallery and powered down his device. After returning it to the drawer of his nightstand, he buried his head under his pillow. Besides the discipline instilled by the Corps and his training, the blissful oblivion of sleep was the only other thing that offered him a temporary reprieve from this pain, now his constant companion, that throbbed in his chest. Besides the other losses that he had sustained in his lifetime, he had lost his fiancee, and he was betraying her now with the pangs of a new love, a love that could never be, but it was a betrayal, all the same. Perhaps he was destined to trudge through life alone, a broken, solitary warrior, and if this was because of a past wrong that he had committed, then he could accept this fate. The only unfortunate thing about this outcome was that it left him with his frailties intact, and he was suffering as a result of them even now. However, he was no stranger to suffering, and he would go on by doing what he had always done... endure.

**END**

**Author's Note 3: **The Waitomo Caves of New Zealand were a big source of inspiration for this story. I'd advise searching for images related to them - the caves look absolutely stunning.


End file.
